Terminal, base station and method for a cellular network

ABSTRACT

A base station ( 1 ) of a cellular network ( 9 ) having a dividing means ( 2 ) for dividing data ( 4 ) intended for an user terminal (U 1 ) into data packets (DP 1 -DP 4 ) and a selecting means ( 7 ) for selecting at least one of the user terminals (U 2 -U 4 ) of said cellular network ( 9 ). Thereby, the selecting means ( 7 ) selects user terminals which are connected or are able to connect to said user terminal (U 1 ) via a second network ( 6 ). Further, the base station ( 1 ) comprises a sending means ( 8 ) for sending at least one of said data packets (DP 1 -DP 4 ) to said user terminals selected (U 2 -U 4 ) over said cellular network. Also, a terminal of the user (U 1 ) receiving the data ( 4 ) and a method of the receiving is comprised.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a communication method of a cellularnetwork, and to a terminal and base station for such.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A cellular network offers large coverage areas and high terminalmobility. Thereby, even moving terminals are able to connect to thecellular network. But the data rate is limited by the usable cell sizeand the speed of the moving terminals. Therefore, higher data rates areonly usable close to the base station with pedestrian speeds. So, inhigh moving vehicles it is impossible to use very high data rates.

To increase the data rate, an asymmetric utilization in up-link anddown-link can be used. Thereby, a higher data rate for down-link can beprovided, if up-link data rates are decreased accordingly. But, thisasymmetric data transfer cannot increase the overall data rate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore the object of the present invention, to increase thedata rate for a selected user terminal, especially if this user ismoving.

The object is solved by a base station according to claim 1 or 6, by aterminal according to claim 9 or 18 and by a method according to claim26 or 33. Advantageous developments of the invention are mentioned inthe dependent claims.

Throughout this application words user terminal and terminal are usedfor describing the terminal equipment, which may be related to aspecific user. A user terminal can be in example a cellular phone, aPDA, a mobile router, or any other mobile communication apparatuscapable of receiving, handling and sending data in accordance to thismethod and system. A terminal can be also for instance a mobile routerequipment, which may or may not be associated to a specific user.

The terminal should be understood as any kind of terminal capable offunctioning in accordance to the specified claims.

The apparatus and the method of the invention have the advantage thatdata which is intended for an specific terminal is distributed over atleast two terminals so that idle terminals or terminals that do notutilizise the maximum data rate can be used as an additional passage fordata packets of the data. Therefore, the overall data rate increaseswith the terminals concerned with the shared data transmission. Thereby,the invention makes use of a second network between the terminals totransfer the data packets to/from the specific terminal.

According to an advantageous development, one data packet is sentdirectly between the cellular network base station and the specificterminal, and the other data packets are sent over other availableterminals.

According to another advantageous development, terminals of the cellularnetwork which are near the terminal for which the data is intended areselected. Then, the second network can be provided as an low-rangenetwork so that high data rates can be used.

According to a further advantageous development, terminals of thecellular network which are moving together with the terminal for whichthe data is intended are selected. Then the relative speed between theterminal for which the data is intended and the other selected terminalsis slow so that high data rates can be achieved.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ACCOMPANIED DRAWINGS

The invention is further described in detail with relation to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 to 3 show flow charts of a method according to a first embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 4 to 6 show flow charts of a method according to a secondembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 shows a schematic structure of base station and users accordingto the first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 shows a receiving terminal of FIG. 7 according to the firstembodiment of the invention in greater detail;

FIG. 9 shows a sending terminal according to the second embodiment ofthe invention;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic structure of base station and user terminalsaccording to the second embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 11 shows two users according to a third embodiment of theinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 to 3 show flow charts of a method for sending data from a basestation of a cellular network to a specific user terminal (down-link).FIG. 1 shows the steps performed on the side of the base station, FIG. 2shows the steps performed on the side of a user selected for forwardtransmission, and FIG. 3 shows the steps performed on the side of theuser for which the data is intended.

In step 101 the procedure performed by the base station is started, and,as shown in step 102, input data for an user terminal U1 is receivedfrom the cellular network. Then, in step 103 it is determined whichother user terminals are connected or are able to connect to userterminal U1 over a second network. In the first embodiment of theinvention the second network is an ad-hoc network of low range so thatpreferably only the part of the user terminals, which is close to userterminal U1, are selected in the following step 104. The number ofselected other user terminals U2 to U4 depends also on the data rateneeded between the base station and the user terminal U1.

Step 104 is followed by step 105, in which the input data is divided indata packets DP1 to DP4, whereby one data packet DP1 is for the userterminal U1 and the other three data packets DP2 to DP4 are for theselected other user terminals U2 to U4.

The number of three user terminals selected is only intended as anexemplary example. In general, in step 104 any number of user terminalsdetermined in step 103 can be selected. The input data is then dividedin this number incremented by 1 data packets in step 105, whereby theadditional one data packet is for the user terminal U1.

Step 105 is followed by step 106, in which a connection is establishedbetween the cellular network base station and the user terminal U1 andthe selected other user terminals U2 to U4. This may be done accordingto any known, or future cellular network procedures. Connecting methodsused in cellular network are not an essential part of this invention,and the specific methods for establishing a connection over a cellularnetwork between the base station and the terminals are thereforeomitted. The description of creating this connection is thereforesimplified to the essence of that a connection is established betweenthe base station and each terminal participating this system and method.After connecting to the user terminals U1 to U4, one data packet DP1 issent to user terminal U1 and the other data packets DP2 to DP4 are sentto the other user terminals U2 to U4, as shown in step 107. Thereafter,the procedure ends in step 108.

In step 107 the data packets DP1 to DP4 can be sent as severalsubblocks. Thereby the data packets to each of the user terminals U1 toU4 are sent in parallel so that the effective data rate is at most thedata rate for a single user terminal multiplied with the number ofconnected user terminals U1 to U4.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of the method performed by each of theterminals of the users U2 to U4.

The method is starting in step 201 after the connection is establishedbetween the base station and the respective user terminal. Then, a datapacket DP2; DP3; DP4 is received from the base station, as shown in step202. In step 203 it is determined, whether the data received isdesignated for another user terminal or for this terminal. If the datareceived is not designated for another user terminal, the data receivedis used, as shown in step 207. If the data received is designated foranother user terminal, then the user terminal U1 for which the datareceived is designated is connected over a second network, whereby inthis embodiment the second network is a low-range ad-hoc network (step204). After connecting to user terminal U1, the data received in step202 is sent to user terminal U1 in step 205, and the method ends in step206.

The selection of the terminals contacted to this second network canalternatively be initiated before the actual data sending procedure isstarted, or any data packets intended for another user terminal U1 inthe second network are received by the other user terminals U2-U4. Thisimplicates that step 204 is performed prior to step 201. Establishmentof the connection over network 2 can take place i.e. with any suitablesignalling procedure, which is not in scope of this invention.

If the respective data packet is sent in several subblocks, then thesubblocks can either be collected in step 202, until the whole datapacket has been received, before the method proceeds with step 203, orsteps 201 to 206 can be repeated for each of the subblocks.

FIG. 3 shows a method performed at the terminal of the user U1 for whichthe data is intended.

This method starts in step 301 to receive the data packet DP1 from thebase station over the cellular network in step 302. In step 303 the datapackets DP2 to DP4 are received from the other user terminals U2 to U4over the ad-hoc network. It is also possible that steps 301 and 302 areexecuted in parallel or in opposite order, 302 first. Even if in steps302 and 303 some data packets DP1 to DP4 are-missing, the methodproceeds with step 304. In step 304 it is probed, whether all datapackets DP1 to DP4 have been received. If not, the method continues withstep 305 and tests for a time-out. If the time-out is reached in step305, then the procedure performs an error procedure, as shown in step306.

The error procedure in step 306 depends on the sort of data transferredbetween the base station and the user terminal. In a telephoneconsultation some missing data packets may not be a problem. But, ifcomputer data is transferred, then even with the use of redundancycoding the lack of information may be so heavy, that reconstruction ofthe data is not possible, so that a request for a (partial) resendingmust be sent.

If no time-out occurs in step 305, then steps 302 and 303 are repeated.

When the data packets DP1 to DP4 are each sent as several subblocks,then in step 304 it is probed, if all subblocks of all data packets DP1to DP4 have been received.

If step 304 is answered “yes”, then the data packets DP1 to DP4 receivedare combined in step 307. Then, the data is output in step 308 and theprocedure ends (step 309).

FIG. 4 to 6 show a method for sending data from a terminal to the basestation of a cellular network according to a second embodiment of theinvention (up-link). FIG. 4 shows the part of the method performed onthe side of the user terminal which sends the data, FIG. 5 shows thesteps on the side of a user terminal which is used as a transmissionstation, and FIG. 6 shows the steps performed on the side of the basestation.

In FIG. 4 after the start of the method in step 401, the input dataintended for sending to the base station is input in step 402. Then, instep 403 the terminal of the user determines which other user terminalsare connected or are able to connect to the same second network, wherebyin this embodiment the second network is a low-range ad-hoc network.Thereafter, as shown in step 404 all or a part of these user terminalsare selected according to the data rate needed. Due to the low-rangecharacteristic of the second network according to the second embodimentof the invention, user terminals that are close to the terminal of theuser who intends to send the input data are preferably selected.

Step 404 is followed by step 405, in which the input data is dividedinto number of selected other user terminals U2 to U4 plus 1 datapackets DP1 to DP4. Thereby, the additional data packet is intended tobe sent directly from the user terminal to the base station. In anotherembodiment, in which the user terminal does not itself send a datapacket directly to the base station, the input data is only divided intothe number of data packets that corresponds to the number of otherselected user terminals.

Then, a connecton is established between the user terminal and thecellular network base station in step 406. After connecting to the basestation, the data packet DP1 is sent to the base station, as shown instep 407. Thereafter, the other selected user terminals U2 to U4 areconnected over an ad-hoc network in step 408. Next, the other datapackets DP2 to DP4 are sent to the selected other user terminals U2 toU4 in step 409. After performing steps 406 to 409, it is probed in step410, whether all data packets DP1 to DP4 have been sent. If not, in step411 a possible time-out is detected which time-out results in a jump tothe error procedure shown in step 412. If no time-out occurs in step411, then steps 406 to 409 are repeated, until all data packets havebeen sent, as probed in step 410. In this case, the procedure ends instep 413. Alternatively, step 407 may be performed only after steps 408and/or 409. That is, the data packet DP1 may be sent to the base stationonly after the other user terminals have been selected and or after theother data packets have been sent to the other user terminals. It's alsopossible that steps 407 and 409 are done in parallel, so that all datapackets DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4 are sent essentially in parallel.

The data packets DP1 to DP4 may also be sent as subblocks. Then, in step410 it is determined, whether all subblocks of all data packets havebeen sent.

A time-out in step 411 may occur for several reasons. If a selected userterminal disconnects during the sending steps 406 to 409 then therespective-data packet can be sent to the base station or some otherselected user terminal. Selecting a not yet selected user terminal fromthe users determined in step 403 is also possible. The unsent datapackets can then be sent to this user terminal.

In FIG. 5 the method performed by a terminal of an user selected forsharing a data packet DP1; DP2; DP3 of the data according to the secondembodiment of the invention is shown as a flow chart.

The method starts with step 501, and receives thereafter a data packetDP1; DP2; DP3 from user terminal U1 over the ad-hoc network, as shown instep 502. Thereafter, it is probed in step 503, whether that datareceived is for transmission to the base station. If not, then the datareceived is for the terminal itself and used accordingly, as shown instep 504. If the data received is for transmission to the base station,then step 505 follows, in which the connection is established betweenthe terminal and the cellular network base station. Thereafter, as shownin step 506, the data received is sent to the base station over thecellular network connection and the procedure ends in step 507.

FIG. 6 shows the procedure performed by the base station as a part ofthe method according to the second embodiment of the invention as a flowchart.

The procedure shown in FIG. 6 starts with step 601. Then, the datapackets DP1 to DP4 are received from the user terminals U1 to U4 via thecellular network, as shown in step 602. In step 603 it is determined,whether all data packets DP1 to DP4 have been received. If not, and if atime-out occurs, as probed in step 604, then the procedure jumps to anerror routine shown in step 605. Until the time-out, step 602 isrepeated.. In the error procedure shown in step 605, a request forresending a (specific) data packet DP1; DP2; DP3; DP4 can be sent touser-terminal U1. On the other hand, retransmission may not benecessary, for example in a telephone conversation or if that missingdata can be reconstructed. The problem is the same as described withreference to step 306 in FIG. 3.

After all data packets have been received, step 606 follows, in whichthe data packets DP1 to DP4 received are combined together to theoriginal data.

In step 607 this data is output, and the procedure ends in step 608.

FIG. 7 shows base station and user terminals of the first embodiment ofthe invention.

The base station 1 comprises a dividing means 2. The dividing means 2 isconnected with the input line 3 to input data 4 for the user terminalU1. The user terminals which are connected or are able to connect touser U1 over a second network 6 are listed in the list of user terminals5. List of user terminals comprise user and/or terminal informationwhich enables contacting the specific terminals which can be usedaccording to this invention. This may include, for example in additionto terminal and/or user identification or contact information also suchadditional information as terminal capabilities information andapplication or service useability, allowance and/or restrictioninformation. As an example, in the first embodiment of the invention theuser terminals U2, U3 and U4 are listed in the list of user terminals 5.It should be understood, that the list of user terminals 5 may alsoreside outside the base station, as far as the information of theavailable terminals for connection is available for the base stationwhen needed. In this exemplary embodiment, this list is provided withinthe base station. This information may thus also be provided from aremote list which is made available over an interface to the otherrelated functions in the base station. The list of user terminals 5 isconnected with a selecting means 7. In this example, to transmit thedata 4 in time, four times the data rate of a single base station touser terminal connection is needed. Hence, the selecting means 7 selectuser terminals U2, U3 and U4. The number+1 and contact information ofselected user terminals is sent from the selecting means 7 to thedividing means 2. The selected user terminal information for U2, U3 andU4 are input from the selecting means 7 to a sending means 8. Thedividing means 2 divides the data 4 in at least two parts. The number ofparts depends on the number input from the selecting means 7. In theexample the dividing means 2 divides the data 4 in four data packets DP1to DP4. The data packets DP1 to DP4 are sent from the dividing means 2to the sending means 8. The sending means 8 connects to user terminalsU1 to U4 over the cellular network 9 and sends the data packets DP1 toDP4 to the respective user terminals. Thereby the data packets DP1 toDP4 are sent essentially in parallel.

Then, user terminals U2 to U4 connect to the user terminal U1 over thesecond network 6 and send the data packets DP2 to DP4 to user terminalU1. According to another optional embodiment, the connection betweenterminals U1 and other terminals U2 to U4 is established already at thetime of sending the data packets DP1 to DP4.

FIG. 8 shows the receiving of the data packets DP1 to DP4 according tothe first embodiment of the invention in greater detail. In this and allother figures corresponding:parts are referred to by identical referencenumbers.

The receiving part 15 of user terminal U1 comprises a receiving means 16which is adapted to receive data sent over the cellular network frombase station 1. Further, the receiving part 15 comprises a furtherreceiving means 17 which is adapted to receive data from other userterminals via the second network 6 essentially in parallel. This kind ofarrangement can be done for example in a multi-carrier system, forexample OFDM, so that some number of the sub-carriers are allocated toeach sending user terminal U2, U3, U4, and the receiving user terminalU1 receives all sub-carriers at the same time. Or, in a time divisionsystem one time slot is allocated to each sending user terminal U2, U3,U4, and the receiving user terminal U1 receives all required time slots.

Hence, the receiving means 16, 17 receive the data packets DP1 to DP4 atmost in parallel, and forward them to a combining means 18 for combiningthe data packets DP1 to DP4 to their original data 4.

FIG. 9 shows a terminal of a user sending data to the base stationaccording to the second embodiment of the invention.

The sending part 20 of user terminal U1 comprises a dividing means 21.Data 22 is input to the dividing means 21. In a list of user terminals23 of the sending part 20 the user terminals are listed, which areconnected or are able to connect to the same second network as userterminal U1. A selecting means 24 selects, as an example of thisembodiment, user terminals U2 to U4 from the list of user terminals 23,because the amount of data 22, is four times the amount of data that canbe sent in time through a single connection over the cellular network sothat four user connections to the base station 1 are needed to achievethe preferred data rates.

The dividing means 21 divides the data 22 in the data packets DP1 to DP4in line with the number of user terminals selected plus 1, which is sentfrom the selecting means 24 to the dividing means 21. The dividing means21 sends one data packet DP1 to the further sending means 25, wherebythe further sending means 25 sends the data packet DP1 to the basestation 1 over the cellular network 9.

The other three data packets DP2 to DP4 are sent from the dividing means21 to the sending means 26, and the sending means 26 sends this datapackets essentially in, parallel to the user terminals U2 to U4 over thesecond network 6. This kind of arrangement can be done for example in amulti-carrier system, for example OFDM, so that some number of thesub-carriers are allocated to each sending user terminal U2, U3, U4, andthe sending user terminal U1 transmits data on all sub-carriers at thesame time. Or, in a time division system one time slot is allocated toeach receiving user terminal U2, U3, U4, and the sending user terminalU1 transmits in all applicable time slots.

Then, user terminals U2 to U4 send the respective data packets DP1 toDP4 to the base station 1 of the cellular network 9.

FIG. 10 shows the receiving of the data-by the base station 1 accordingto the second embodiment of the invention, whereby the base station 1 isshown in greater detail.

User terminal U1 sends the data packet DP1 directly over the cellularnetwork 9 to the base station 1 and data packets DP2 to DP4 over thesecond network 6 to users U2 to U4, and user terminals U2 to U4thereafter send (forward) the data packets DP2 to DP4 to the basestation 1 of the cellular network 9, as described according to FIG. 9.

The base station, 1 comprises a receiving means 30 to receive the datapackets DP1 to DP4 from user terminals U1 to U4. The receiving means 30sends those data packets DP1 to DP4 to a combining means 31 forcombining the data packets DP1 to DP4 to the original data 22, whichdata 22 is output at output 32.

FIG. 11 shows a third embodiment of the invention.

In FIG. 11 a user is moving with his user terminal U1, for example in acar 40, with velocity v. Another user is moving with his user termialU2, for example in another car 41, with velocity v+δv. Both userterminals are connected to the cellular network 9. If both userterminals U1, U2 drive in the same direction on a motor highway, thenthe difference δv between their velocities is small. If the userterminal U2 is idle and user terminal U1 needs a higher data rate to thebase station of the cellular network 9, then user terminal U1 can takeadvantage of the idle user terminal U2. User terminals U1 and U2 areclose to each other and the relative speed δv between them is small sothat spectral efficient transfer methods can be used between them by alocal ad-hoc network. Hence, the data rate between user terminals U1 andU2 can be much higher than the data rate of a single connection betweenuser terminal U1 or U2 and the base station of the cellular network 9.Hence, the overall data rate is not limited by the transmission betweenuser terminals U1 and U2 and twice the data rate of a single connectionover the cellular network 9 can be provided.

Therefore, it is advantageous that, for example in step 104 (FIG. 1) ofthe first embodiment of the invention and step 404 (FIG. 4) of thesecond embodiment of the invention, user terminals with nearly the samevelocity and direction of movement are selected. Other examples are userterminals moving together in a same bus or train. Although first andsecond embodiment of the invention have been described with four userterminals, it will be apparent that an arbitrary number of userterminals can be involved. Further, the data can be sent in severalsubblocks, for example if the amount of data is large. If the number ofuser terminals involved is increased, the portion of the connectionbetween the user terminal which receives the data in the end and thebase station is reduced. Therefore, even if the direct transmission tothe receiving user terminal is omitted a large overall data rate can beachieved.

Further, instead that the local transfer utilizes an ad-hoc network, another embodiment of the invention is to build a transceiver station,which station comprises many mobile terminals with wired or wirelesslinks between them and one terminal is acting as a controller. Thereby,the links are used to transfer the data as a multipoint-to-point and/orpoint-to-multipoint fashion. The advantage of this control is that itenables to use the other terminals as virtual transceivers in multipleinput multiple output (MIMO) systems, where there are multiple transmitantennas and multiple receive antennas.

In the preferred embodiments of the invention it is advantageous thatthe data packets are sent and/or are received essentially in parallel.In a transfer system, in which each of the terminals sends and receivesin its own time slot, parallel means that the data packets aredistributed to be sent and/or received nearly at the same time. Then,essentially parallel is to be understood in the way that the overalldata rate is larger than the data rate available for a single connectionbetween a cellular base station and a terminal.

1-36. (canceled)
 37. A base station of a cellular network comprising: adividing means for dividing data intended for a terminal into datapackets; a selecting means for selecting at least one of other terminalsof said cellular network which are connected to or are able to connectto said terminal over a second network; and a sending means for sendingat least one of said data packets to said other terminals selected bysaid selecting means over said cellular network, whereby the data packetis sent to said selected other terminals for forward transmission tosaid terminal over said second network.
 38. A base station according toclaim 37, wherein said sending means sends at least one data packet tosaid terminal for which the data is intended.
 39. A base stationaccording to claim 38, wherein said data packets are sent essentially inparallel to said terminal and said other terminals selected.
 40. A basestation according to claim 37, wherein said selecting means selects saidother terminals of the cellular network which are near the terminal forwhich the data is intended.
 41. A base station according to claim 37,wherein said selecting means selects other terminals of the cellularnetwork which are moving together with the terminal for which the datais intended.
 42. A base station of a cellular network comprising: areceiving means for receiving data packets from terminals over thecellular network; and a combining means for combining the data packetsthat have their origin in a specific terminal, whereby at least a partof said data packets is transmitted from said specific terminal to atleast one other terminal over at least a second network.
 43. A basestation according to claim 42, wherein said receiving means receives atleast one data packet from said specific terminal and said combiningmeans combines the at least one other data packet transmitted from atleast one other terminal and having its origin in said specific terminalwith said data packet received from said specific terminal.
 44. A basestation according to claim 42, wherein said combining means is adaptedto receive said data packets at most in parallel.
 45. A terminal of acellular network for receiving data which is divided into at least twodata packets sent to different terminals of the cellular network oversaid cellular network, said terminal comprises: a receiving means forreceiving at least one of said data packets from an other terminal ofsaid cellular network over a second network, and a combining means forcombining said data packets.
 46. A terminal according to claim 45,comprising a further receiving means for receiving at least one datapacket from a base station of said cellular network over said cellularnetwork, whereby this data packet is received essentially in parallel tothe other data packets received by said receiving means over said secondnetwork.
 47. A terminal according to claim 45, wherein said receivingmeans is adapted to receive said data packets received over said secondnetwork essentially in parallel.
 48. A terminal according to claim 45,wherein said second network is a wireless network.
 49. A terminalaccording to claim 48, wherein said second network is an ad-hoc network.50. A terminal according to claim 45, wherein said second network has ahigher average useable data rate than the cellular network.
 51. Aterminal according to claim 50, wherein said second network is alow-range network so that the second network is limited to nearbyterminals.
 52. A terminal according to claim 50, wherein said secondnetwork is limited to terminals moving together.
 53. A terminalaccording to claim 45, wherein said terminal is part of a transceiverstation, whereby said transceiver station comprises said other terminalsconnected to said terminal over said second network, and links over thesecond network between said terminal and said other terminals are usedto transfer said data packets in a multipoint-to-point fashion to saidterminal.
 54. A terminal of a cellular network for sending data to abase station of a cellular network comprising: a dividing means fordividing data intended to be sent to said base station of said cellularnetwork into data packets, a selecting means for selecting otherterminals of said cellular network which are connected or could beconnected to the said terminal over a second network, a sending meansfor sending at least one data packet to said selected other terminalsover said second network, whereby the data packet is sent to said otherterminals for forward transmission to said base station over thecellular network.
 55. A terminal according to claim 54, comprising afurther sending means for sending at least one data packet to the basestation of said cellular network over said cellular network, wherebythis data packet is sent essentially in parallel to the other datapackets sent by said sending means over said second network.
 56. Aterminal according to claim 54, wherein said sending means is adapted tosend said data packets over said second network to said other terminalsessentially in parallel.
 57. A terminal according to claim 54, whereinsaid second network is a wireless network.
 58. A terminal according toclaim 57, wherein said second network has a higher average useable datarate than the cellular network.
 59. A terminal according to claim 58,wherein said second network is a low-range network so that the secondnetwork is limited to nearby terminals.
 60. A terminal according toclaim 57, wherein said second network is limited to terminals movingtogether.
 61. A terminal according to claim 54, wherein said terminal ispart of a transceiver station, whereby said transceiver stationcomprises said other terminals connected to said terminal over saidsecond network, and links over the second network between said terminaland said other terminals are used to transfer said data packets in apoint-to-multipoint fashion to said other terminals.
 62. A method forsending data from a base station of a cellular network to a specificterminal comprising the steps of: a) dividing said data into datapackets; b) selecting other terminals of said cellular network which areconnected to or are able to connect to said specific terminal over asecond network; c) sending a portion of said data packets from said basestation to said other terminals over said cellular network; d) sendingsaid data packets from said other terminals to said specific terminalover said second network; e) receiving the portion of said data packetssend from said other terminals by said specific terminal; f) combiningsaid data packets received to retrieve said data.
 63. A method accordingto claim 62, comprising the further steps of b2) selecting said specificterminal; c2) sending one data packet from the base station to saidspecific terminal over said cellular network; and e2) receiving saiddata packet sent from the base station by said specific terminal.
 64. Amethod according to claim 62, wherein said data packets are receivedessentially in parallel.
 65. A method according to claim 62, whereinsaid second network is a wireless network.
 66. A method according toclaim 65, wherein said second network is an ad-hoc network.
 67. A methodaccording to claim 65, wherein said second network is a low-rangenetwork.
 68. A method according to claim 62, wherein said terminal ispart of a transceiver station, whereby said transceiver stationcomprises said other terminals connected to said terminal over saidsecond network and links over the second network between said terminaland said other terminals are used to transfer said data packets in amultipoint-to-point fashion to said terminal.
 69. A method for sendingdata from a specific terminal of a cellular network to a base stationcomprising the steps of: a) dividing said data into data packets; b)selecting other terminals of said cellular network which are connectedor could be connected to the said terminal over a second network; c)sending at least a portion of said data packets from said specificterminal to said other terminals over said second network; d) receivingsaid data packets sent over said second network by said other userterminals; e) transmitting said data packets received from said otherterminals to said base station over said cellular network; f) receivingsaid data packets sent over the cellular network by the base station;and g) combining said data packets sent over the cellular network toretrieve said data.
 70. A method according to claim 69, comprising thefurther step of: c1) sending at least one data packet from said specificterminal to the base station over the cellular network.
 71. A methodaccording to claim 69, wherein said data packets sent over the cellularnetwork are received essentially in parallel.
 72. A method according toclaim 69, wherein said second network is a wireless network.
 73. Amethod according to claim 72, wherein said second network is an ad-hocnetwork.
 74. A method according to claim 72, wherein said second networkis a low-range network.
 75. A method according to claim 69, wherein saidterminal is part of a transceiver station, whereby said transceiverstation comprises said other terminals connected to said terminal oversaid second network and links over the second network between saidterminal and said other terminals are used to transfer said data packetsin a point-to-multipoint fashion to said other terminals.